"The conservatives held that classicism fosters discipline - it was more likely a hope that the citizen who had endured Greek in his childhood would be able to endure the Czarist regime the rest of his life."
-Leon Trotsky, My Life (New York, 1970), Chapter III, p. 45.
What education would Manuel Argos, Founder of the Terran Empire, favor? I suggest:
the history of the Troubles as leading to the Terran Empire;
the history of the Roman Empire as the model for the Terran Empire;
the sciences underlying the technology on which the Terran Empire is based.
Would Argos revive the archaism of Latin inscriptions on buildings and monuments? This would not require knowledge of Latin among the populace. Anyone who wanted to know the meaning of an inscription would (their equivalent of) google it. Two aliens address Flandry in Latin (see More Latin) so the language is still around. The Polesotechnic League had used "League Latin," although surely the much simpler Esperanto would have been more suitable?
After the Empire, during the Long Night, "classics" comes to mean the lost sciences and thus is practical, not academic, fostering more than just discipline!
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And compared to the Soviet regime Trotsky helped to found, the Tsarist regime was gentle and mild! I recall how Solzhenitsyn narrated in THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO that an old Social Revolutionary, after being tortured by Chekists, exclaimed that his old Tarist interrogator had never even been rude to him!
Basically, I agree with your speculations about the kind of education Manuel Argos would encourage in the new Empire he founded.
Why should Esperanto be used at all when Latin was so much more CULTURALLY familiar and high status? Also, as you said, Latin had already been revived by the fallen Polesotechnic League as a lingua franca used by humans and non-humans, making Latin even more familiar. So, yes, I can see Manuel Argos and his successors using Latin for ceremonial purposes, such as inscriptions or the legends stamped on Imperial coins. I looked at a 2 pence coin of Elizabeth II and saw how the UK still uses Latin for its coins.
I too recall how Roan Tom's second wife mentioned in "A Tragedy of Errors" that sciences like astronomy came to be regarded as one of the classics after the Empire fell. The way Sassania preserved knowledge like that would indeed be good for more than self discipline.
Sean
Sean,
Latin is very complicated. Esperanto was designed to be very simple.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I understand, but Esperanto has never CAUGHT on with all that many people. Moreover, it probably doesn't strike people as being very "cultured" or dignified, the way Latin does.
Sean
Sean,
Latin makes sense for memorials and inscriptions.
Esperanto could be adopted as a universal second language. It would be a matter of persuading governments and schools.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And even if you didn't like the book, we see Robert Hugh Benson having gov'ts using Esperanto like that in his novel LORD OF THE WORLD. Truth to say, I don't think any gov'ts will ever adopt Esperanto.
Sean
Sean,
I forgot that there was Esperanto in LORD OF THE WORLD.
Divine Right of Kings, no democracy, a Vatican State where adultery and apostasy are capital offenses: of course I didn't like it!
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Actually, the impression I got or recalled from Benson's LORD OF THE WORLD was of "divine right of kings" being rejected and of democracy being replaced by a world regime headed by the Antichrist. And, even tho I would disagree with apostates, I would disagree with Benson if he seriously advocated executing them (and adulterers).
Sean
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